...Eventually

What a difference a day makes in the battle over flight restrictions at Dallas Love Field. With the announcement that Southwest Airlines is planning soon to fly from Love Field to Missouri -- the ninth state to be exempted from Wright Amendment restrictions -- rival American Airlines is reluctantly going ahead with plans to reopen the three DAL gates the carrier had left vacant since 2001.

As was reported earlier this week in Aero-News, the ban on nonstop flights out of the storied Dallas airfield to Missouri was lifted with President Bush's signing Wednesday of a Congressional spending bill.

While American has stated many times it does not want to move a single airliner from its hub at cross-town megaport DFW International, the carrier now says it is forced by economics to match Southwest's service from the downtown airport, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Until Ft. Worth-based American can get its three Love Field gates operational -- and it will take a little more than a new coat of paint and some vacuuming, as they'll need to install an entirely new computer system, and jetways so the planes can link up with the terminal -- the carrier is forced to match Southwest's Missouri fares from Love -- with its lower operating costs -- from more expensive DFW. That means American is losing even more money on fares that already aren't giving the carrier much room for profit.

American says it hopes to begin flying from Love by early 2006.

Perhaps worse for the carrier, however, is that American will have to shift aircraft from other, more profitable routes over to Love Field -- a scenario that becomes even more problematic if the Wright Amendment is repealed, and Southwest is allowed to fly across the country unimpeded.

Love Field-based Southwest, a fervent proponent of a complete lifting of the controversial Wright Amendment, said earlier the carrier was going to treat Missouri as a proving ground, of sorts, for the carrier's anticipated expansion into other markets should Wright be repealed altogether. To say the LCC is looking forward to such a day would be a monumental understatement.

"We knew [the Missouri repeal] was coming, but we were just ecstatic," said Southwest spokesman Ed Stewart. "It was like Christmas morning."

"We've got one down, and 41 more to go," he added.

FMI: www.southwest.com, www.aa.com